FIFA Women's World Cup
This article is about the women's. For the men's, see FIFA World Cup. The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football tournament contested by the national women's senior teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. It is held every four years (after the men's tournament and before the Summer Olympics) since the 1991 tournament in China; after the first men's tournament was held in Uruguay 61 years prior. The FIFA Women's World Cup is recognized as the most important international competition in women's football; and is played against FIFA members, the sport's global governing body. The next World Cup will be held in Canada. History The tournament was originally the brainchild of the then FIFA president João Havelange. The inaugural tournament was hosted in China in 1991, with twelve teams sent to represent their countries. The 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup was held in Sweden with twelve teams. The United States and Germany have won the championship twice, and Norway and Japan once each. In the 1999 edition, one of the most famous moments of the tournament was American defender Brandi Chastain's victory celebration after scoring the Cup-winning penalty kick against China. She took off her jersey and waved it over her head (as men frequently do), showing her muscular torso and sports bra as she celebrated. The 1999 final in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California had an attendance of 90,185, a world record for a women's sporting event. The 1999 and 2003 Women's World Cups were both held in the United States; in 2003 China was supposed to host it, but the tournament was moved because of SARS. As compensation, China retained its automatic qualification to the 2003 tournament as host nation, and was automatically chosen to host the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup. Germany hosted the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup, as decided by vote in October 2007. In March 2011, FIFA awarded Canada the right to host the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup. The 2015 edition will see the field expand from 16 to 24 teams. At the 2007 World Cup in China, U.S. captain Kristine Lilly competed in her fifth (and ultimately final) World Cup, making her the first woman and at the time one of three players in history to appear in five World Cups. Format Final tournament The current final tournament features 24 national teams competing over about one month in the host nation(s). There are two stages: the group stage followed by the round of 16. In the group stage, teams compete within four groups of four teams each. In the group stage, 24 teams seeded into four groups (A, B, C, D, E, F) compete against each other in a round-robin tournament. After Germany trounced Argentina 11–0 in the opening game of the 2007 World Cup, FIFA president Sepp Blatter conceded that the one-sided match was "not good for the game" and was something that FIFA would consider in deciding whether or not to expand the group phase to 24 teams. On 3 December 2009, FIFA decided to expand the women's World Cup to 24 teams for 2015. Each group plays a round-robin tournament, in which each team is scheduled for three matches against other teams in the same group. The last round of matches of each group is scheduled at the same time to preserve fairness among all four teams.The top two teams from each group advance to the knockout stage. Points are used to rank the teams within a group. Since 1994, three points have been awarded for a win, one for a draw and none for a loss (before the 1994 World Cup, winners received two points). The ranking of each team in each group is determined as follows: # Greatest number of points in group matches # Greatest goal difference in group matches # Greatest number of goals scored in group matches # If more than one team remain level after applying the above criteria, their ranking will be determined as follows: ## Greatest number of points in head-to-head matches among those teams ## Greatest goal difference in head-to-head matches among those teams ## Greatest number of goals scored in head-to-head matches among those teams # If any of the teams above remain level after applying the above criteria, their ranking will be determined by the drawing of lots The knockout stage is a single-elimination tournament in which teams play each other in one-off matches, with extra time and penalty shootouts used to decide the winner if necessary. It begins with the round of 8 (or the second round) in which the winner of each group plays against the runner-up of another group. This is followed by the semi-finals, the third-place match (contested by the losing semi-finalists), and the final. Results No extra time was played. *'Key:' **a.e.t. — after extra time **asdet — after golden goal (sudden death) extra time **pso — penalty shootout National team appearances Category:FIFA Women's World Cup Category:FIFA World Cup Category:World championships Category:Association football